1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to print shop management system and methods, and more particularly it relates to web-based print shop servers and programs for authenticating print-on-demand users from third party vendors.
2. Description of Related Art
With the development of modern computer and communication technologies and printing industry, many print jobs from individual customers can be handled by print shops via submission through a computer network system such as the Internet. One example is a student of a school who has a print job that needs to be printed. The student may log on to the school's server from his or her own laptop via the Internet or from a school computer terminal via an Intranet system of the school. The student submits his or her print job request to the school's server. The print job can then be handled by the school's internal printing department or an outside vendor such as a print shop.
From a print shop operator's point of view, such print job request is coming from a “third party”, which is the school. A print shop generally is a professional printing establishment having multiple sophisticated printers and finishing equipment that can handle a variety of print jobs. A print shop typically has at least one print server to handle the intake and processing of print jobs and control the operation of the printers and finishing equipment. The print server can communicate with a third party's server via the Internet to handle web-based print-on-demand (POD) requests.
However, when receiving a web-based POD request of a user from a third party vendor such as a school, there is a need to authenticate the user by the print shop's system without any direct interaction with the user. For example, when the user is a student of the school, the school's server already has the user's information and can authenticate the user. When the user submits a POD request to the school's server which in turn passes it to the print shop to handle the print job, it is desirable that the print shop server can authenticate the user based on the authentication by the school's server, without requiring the user to go through the authentication process again with the print shop server.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a print shop management method and program for authenticating users from third party sources without directly interacting with the users but rather based on the users' existing authentication with the third party sources.